Saturday, December 02, 2006

STATEMENT from The Falls Church and Truro Church in response to Bishop Lee's Letter of December 1

STATEMENT FROM THE FALLS CHURCH AND TRURO CHURCHSaturday, December 2, 2006

We have read with profound disappointment and sadness Bishop Lee’s December 1 letter to our churches, which has been published on the Diocesan website. This letter appears to undermine months of hard work and prayerful efforts by his own leadership and our congregations to reach agreement on a civil and charitable process by which our differences might be amicably resolved. This grieves us deeply.

The Diocese of Virginia has a long and distinguished history of finding a gracious way through difficult issues in ways that honor our Christian witness to the world. We hope and pray that Bishop Lee, members of the Standing Committee, and other leaders of the diocese will remember that heritage, and will step back from the tragic course they have set for themselves.

We desire to continue to act consistently with the process and protocol of the Special Committee Report, which does not provide for any intervention from the national church, and urge the bishop to meet personally with us at his earliest convenience.

We are communicating our concerns in greater detail to the bishop directly.

7 comments:

I would have thought that Truro and the Falls Church would have investigated the property issue before embarking on the "40 Days of Discernment" journey.

Or is it possible that they were misled by Bishop Lee? Was the protocol developed in "good faith," or was it a sham all along by Bishop Lee? Was Bishop Lee sincere at first, but then caved in to pressure from 815?

See the ending line, "We are communicating our concerns in greater detail to the bishop directly."

+Lee fired an opening shot with an open letter, the part of response is open because +Lee WHOLE letter open, so the press release responds, but more is promised +Lee via private channels.

VERY, VERY unprofessional of +Lee. Obviously more of a political statemtent than a legal one, if this was in a civil court, I'd imagine a tongue lashing to both the bishop & chancellor from the civil judge. This just isn't done. Odd that secular courts have more respect.

Then I suspect this is an attempt to pressure the vote. It is very sad +Lee has stooped this low. In the end I imagine it can only her him and his reputation in history.

I know everyone has been saying "it is all about the property" as far as the VA diocese is concerned, but Lee's letter, not only the wording, but the fact it was posted publically, smacks of "the will to power" issues.

"Faithful Anglican" -- Why do you have a problem with someone, in this case the churches, stating the truth for what it is? As a matter of fact, what I have seen on the blogs largely goes one of two directions. Either it is so polite and chummy-chummy, "we are all brothers and sisters in Christ" or is becomes viscious. I do not commonly see things being stated simply, although now that I remember, Sara Hey did confront someone with the fact that they merely preach a different "gospel."

Of course Paul said, "if anyone preaches a different Gospel, let him be condemned."

Faithful Anglican, there really wasn't much of a choice here. Bishop Lee's letter was posted on the diocesan website and the press were pursuing the story. Truro and The Falls Church had to make a statement (i.e., press release), and that's what this is. Note how minimal the statement is compared with the bishop's letter. Note how the statement takes care to mention, "We are communicating our concerns in greater detail to the bishop directly." A lot more could have been said, but wasn't.

Allen Lewis, I would not doubt 815's involvement here. Look at the parallel language in Bishop Lee's letter with the language that Bishop Jefferts Schori used with Bishop Schofield. In any case, have no concerns about either Truro or The Falls Church acting in haste. That is most assuredly not the case.

Please all consider the 1980 Pastoral Provision of the Roman Catholic Church whereby entire Anglican congregations have been welcomed into full communion with the Catholic Church with modified Books of Common Prayer. A number of parishes in Texas, California, South Carolina and Massachusetts have "swam the Tiber" this way.

Regards and my prayerful best wishes to Truro and The Falls Church faithful,